chris bunting wrote:rubbish , good work always attracts work , my point being you should always produce the highest standard of work you are capable of regardless if you are getting paid for it or not
chris
"Good" has to measures in terms of what the client is looking for. If doing your absolute best fit and finish prevents you from getting everything done that the client needs done, you might get fired for it.
I lost an account a while back because they said it was taking me too long to get things done. It's mostly a breeding farm so I shod a lot of babies...weenlings, yearlings and so on. Lots of them were rank.
All the horses were often let go for a long time and feet would be a mile long, hard as a rock and as messed up as anything you could possibly imagine.
It wasn't exactly the kind of account you're sorry to see go but I did their work for several years. Heck, I did work for them 25 years ago. Everything was fine until my wife stopped riding with me.
Without my wife there, the only one in the barn to help with those horses was the owner and he had other things he wanted to do.
I didn't quit working on one until it was the way I thought it should be but he wasn't impressed by my great fit and finish. To make him happy, I needed to just get the shoes nailed on and got through the list.
I did a great job at what nobody cared about and I failed to give them what they wanted.
I think you'll find that what you think is "good work" isn't always what the client thinks is good work.
I wonder what those folks say about me if they say anything. I doubt they tell people that my work was too good. I'd guess they tell people that I couldn't get through enough horses in a day without telling them that the horses were KICKING MY AZZ! One thing is certain. I haven't been flooded with referrals from them. LOL
A mentor of mine keeps telling me not to sweat the small stuff. I've always had the hardest time following that advice but I think it's often really important. He's not suggesting that I should be "sloppy" but that I not spend too much time on stuff that doesn't matter to anybody except me.
I hated the place and just thinking about going there, literally, made me sick to my stomach but it really bothers me that I got fired from about the worst account that I know of.